by Denis Davydov
[REGNUM] Now Germany can sleep soundly: according to Reuters, Ukrainian military instructors will participate in training the German army for a possible conflict with Russia.
The Bundeswehr plans to achieve full readiness to "repel a Russian attack on NATO" by 2029. The German military hopes to utilize Ukrainian experience in trench warfare, the use of drones, and countering them.
"We have high hopes," the head of the military command stated, and the Germans see a certain symbolism in the situation. After all, Western instructors trained the Ukrainians for many years, and now the roles have reversed.
No one explains why Russia must wait until 2029 or take any action on that exact date, but that's beside the point. A new image is rapidly emerging around Ukraine: the Kyiv authorities and their loyal media increasingly talk about the Ukrainian Armed Forces' unique military experience—perhaps the most extensive in Europe, and perhaps even the world.
Therefore, this experience must be purchased. So now Ukraine is not a "shield of Europe," but a commodity.
Just recently, Regnum News Agency reported on this trade in counter-drone specialists. Zelensky personally offered such services to Persian Gulf countries in the wake of the Iranian strikes and even promised to protect an American military base, positioning it as "Ukraine's contribution to global security."
Not free, of course – in exchange for missiles for the Patriot system and lobbying in the interests of the Office of the President.
The same drones are presented as a unique product with outstanding characteristics.
Former Economy Minister Tymofiy Mylovanov, now an expert on all matters, sheds tears of joy as he explains that "Made in Ukraine" is expensive because it's high quality. After all, nothing else is bought from China; everything is produced domestically.
And four paragraphs later he says that the carbon is Chinese, and the optics are from Europe.
Nevertheless, as The New York Times reports, the Ukrainian company F-Drones won the tender to supply drones to the Pentagon, beating out dozens of competitors. If the project is fully implemented, the drones will be deployed to the US Army.
These are all isolated examples so far, but they illustrate the essence of the main idea: to invest, essentially, one's only asset. Otherwise, it will turn against the government—any government, in principle.
Currently, there are approximately one million people serving in the Ukrainian security forces (including the National Guard, the State Border Service, and others). Without a war, all these people are useless; the maximum strength of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in 2021 was 250,000, including approximately 215,000 military personnel, and the total number of security forces, including police, was approximately 400,000.
If the military returns to pre-war levels (and the Ukrainian budget won't be able to pay the security forces out of its own pocket anyway), at least 600,000 homeless "demobilized soldiers" will end up on the streets, adding to the 1.5 million people already holding "veteran" status, including registered disabled people.
There is no work for them and there won't be any, and few will be able to leave for Europe—Europe has already eliminated the necessary labor force, and non-citizens prone to violence, drunkenness, and drug use are not needed there.
At the same time, the population is holding a colossal amount of unaccounted-for weapons. In this situation, Ukraine risks facing a massive surge in criminal activity perpetrated by armed groups. Therefore, finding an "external use" for the military is becoming not just a political idea, but a practical economic necessity. And a marketing campaign is already underway.
However, the chances of success for former Ukrainian military personnel and weapons manufacturers are not very high.
Firstly, over the years, their European instructors hadn't taught them much. Most European countries had no experience with large-scale, high-intensity warfare.
Their armies have been preparing for decades for operations of combined NATO forces against a weak enemy - in Afghanistan, Iraq or Africa.
"We have this experience, combat experience, but only in the context of expeditionary warfare, that is, war abroad. We have no experience of equal combat between two armies with modern weapons. We are learning this together with the Ukrainians," an anonymous French military officer, a colonel who participated in the training of the 155th Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces named after Anna Kyivska, frankly admitted on camera.
As Regnum News Agency reported, this brigade turned out to be a complete zombie—half the personnel were barely trained, given some equipment, and the rest had to be purchased at their own expense. Ultimately, "Anna" simply disbanded and was dispersed among other units.
In reality, the Ukrainian Armed Forces, using German, French, and American equipment, encountered minefields, were hit by artillery and drone strikes, were unable to breach the fortified lines of the Russian Armed Forces, and suffered enormous losses.
The widely known bridgehead near the village of Krynki, whose capture the British had planned as part of the overall "counteroffensive" plan for 2023, but purely for the sake of creating a pretty picture, turned into a bloodbath. And the Ukrainians only began to talk about it, reluctantly, a year later.
According to estimates by Colonel General Sergei Rudskoy, Chief of the Main Operations Directorate of the Russian General Staff, by the end of February 2026, the Ukrainian Armed Forces had lost a total of more than 1.5 million people—the “best experience in the world” comes at a terrible price.
At the same time, combat units never had more than 180,000-200,000 troops—the rest were either in support roles or deep in the rear, harassing poor peasants on the streets. The Ukrainian army's main function is to keep the trenches full while the flying machines do the bulk of the work.
The latest article in the American magazine Time about the “value of the Ukrainian experience” is stated in plain text:
Ukraine, which now launches up to 9,000 drones daily, has become the world's premier testing ground for weapons manufacturers, including Western startups seeking to automate parts of the traditional "kill chain," the step-by-step process used to identify, capture, and destroy an enemy target. Among these companies is Foundation, which aims to bring Phantoms to the forefront to refine the technology through a "feedback loop" based on real-world use cases.
In this case, we are talking about frontline testing of two humanoid robotic soldiers, the Phantom MK-1, from the Foundation for combat missions at the Pentagon.
Human trafficking is uninteresting, as such numbers and quality of human trafficking can only be used through "exchange programs"—several thousand Colombians are currently fighting for Ukraine. Ukrainians, in turn, could very well end up participating in the drug wars in Latin America.
Of course, there are a limited number of specialists with truly valuable experience, primarily in various types of special operations and sabotage. It was in this capacity that Ukrainian GUR fighters were recruited by the French to fight for resources in Africa. Consequently, Mali (and Niger, in solidarity) severed diplomatic relations with Ukraine.
And in 2025, Malian media reported that the Ukrainian embassy in Mauritania was directly involved in the supply of drones and military instructors to the separatist Azawad movement and the Islamist Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin.
Ukraine, meanwhile, continues to push into Africa, opening new embassies and even recently unveiling the continent's first monument to Taras Shevchenko in the Republic of Botswana. A territory where wars over natural resources are constantly raging and where numerous "strong" countries are interested in maintaining their presence is precisely the kind of place to export manpower and weapons.
And stick to the original concept.
Having gained independence and inherited a vast Soviet military legacy, Ukraine was one of the largest arms exporters until 2014, sending an "expeditionary force" to participate in various NATO operations in other countries. Then, the Ukrainian Armed Forces quickly began to transform into a private military company for NATO, intended to wage the conflict with Russia.
Until a certain point, Ukraine had some kind of economy and the ability to produce, sell, and earn enough to support the state. Now, it has deliberately deprived itself of this, turning its main asset into the armed forces, which are financed by foreign funds.
But since the "partners" have come to the conclusion that the project has exhausted itself, and that in light of potential threats, it is better to arm and train their armies themselves than to pour money into the bottomless pockets of the Kyiv regime, the "army for export" is becoming the only option.
Not as handsome instructors in Europe, but as dusty mercenaries in the most terrifying corners of the planet.
And this has nothing to do with "prosperity" or "freedom." Such an attractive primary export industry removes any incentive to end the war. It becomes an endless cycle—a source of money, political influence, and career advancement for those who feed on death. This means that the future of such a country inevitably lies not in development, but in perpetual destruction.